


Keys to Happiness

by Dzuljeta



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Allergies, Articles, Aspirin, Curiosity, Dimension Travel, F/M, Kissing, Newspapers, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Reunions, Search, Snogging, Telepathy, Telepathy Denial, Time Lady Rose, Time Travel, Vortex Manipulator, Writing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-31
Updated: 2018-10-08
Packaged: 2018-10-13 09:43:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10511211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dzuljeta/pseuds/Dzuljeta
Summary: Martha Jones has long learnt to accept the most incredible of possibilities. Parallel universes? Easy. Time travellers? You don't even have to ask. Time Lords? One is usually just about enough.Only when one Time Lord is joined by another does she realise how complicated the life aboard the TARDIS can become in a blink of an eye...





	1. What Must (Never) Be

**Author's Note:**

> BBC owns everything.

**Keys to Happiness**

**1\. What Must (Never) Be**

The Doctor was feeling tired. Martha Jones incessantly giving him questions did nothing to improve his mood. 

“I'm pretty certain your study books can give you all of the necessary information on that subject,” he grumbled. The last thing the Doctor wanted was getting involved in an apparently pointless discussion. Particularly one concerning his _race_. Gallifrey was long gone, and so were the Time Lords. Why wouldn't she leave it?

“But, seriously, is aspirin _that_ dangerous for you? Isn't there an antidote, or something? Surely, with you constantly reminding me just how much more capable Time Lords are to take all sorts of physical pain-”

“Time Lords as old as I am, we are strong enough to fight it. Usually.”

She gaped at him. “Do you mean the ones considerably younger than you cannot survive its side effects?”

“Usually, someone was always there to look after the youngest and the most rebelious ones. At least that's how I remember being told.”

“So, there _is_ a possibility for someone to find a way to poison another Time Lord? By using aspirin?”

The Time Lord glared at her. “Must we talk about it? You keep talking about my race as if-”

She stopped him. “Bear with me!”

This time, Martha was honestly intrigued. The Doctor was _not_ going to stop her! "How long is it supposed to take for a Time Lord to, well, die from poisoning?”

“They should regenerate rather than die. Assuming-”

“How long?” The companion insisted. “You should _know_ these things!”

“I really don't think it should matter to you,” he muttered.

“It _does_. How long does it take for a _young_ Time Lord to- well, re-ge-ne-rate, as you call it?”

“After being _poisoned_?” He shook his head. Martha Jones was being silly. This had to be the effect of Martha's unwillingness to travel to any of his suggested destinations. The companion's exams were approaching, and she refused to travel anywhere, no mater his assurances she would not miss a thing, the TARDIS being a time machine.

The companion was growing uneasy. “Just answer the question! It's very important,” she added, seeing concern on the Time Lord's face.

“It depends on a lot of factors. His or her health, for example. You should know how severe allergies affect people. It's the same with my race.”

“The approximate time being?” Martha's insistence was starting to seriously worry him.

The Doctor eyed Martha suspiciously. “I can't say.”

“An hour? A day?” The dark-skinned girl started making hurried guesses. If her unimaginable guess was correct...

“Somewhere in between.”

Martha paled. Having someone's life on her conscience was more than she could bear. “Then, we must hurry!”

“Hurry where?” The Doctor scratched his head. What about her insistence to stay aboard, studying?

“To the young Time Lord I was trying to tell you about! Well, I think she's young. Certainly looks like it, according to-"

The girl bit her lip. Jack has warned her against telling him anything revealing the situation right away, she remembered.

“You must be mistaken.” Faces of every Time Lady he has ever met went through his mind. “They're all gone. I can feel it in my hearts.”

Martha looked at him pityingly. “Remember the Master? You surely haven't felt _him_! Don't trust your hearts or your gut feeling blindly.”

“The Master was a different matter altogether.”

“He was bonkers, admit it. I can assure you this one isn't.”

The Doctor was still doubtful, but gave her the important questions anyway. “Have they done anything? Has she at least had her stomach pumped?”

“Yes, but it doesn't seem to help!”

“It shouldn't. Once some crucial limit is crossed- Wait! If the- the-”

“Time Lord,” she suggested, unable to remain still and hurrying after him.

“Time _Lady_ ,” the Doctor corrected automatically, his mouth dry. “If she-”

Martha was watching him quietly, the momentarily changing emotions on his face both posing and answering some of her questions. There was no time to waste. “We should hurry up! She might be dying right now!”

The Time Lord nodded gravely. Even if, and very likely so, this has only been a silly imagining of Martha's, her mind possibly dangerously overfilled with all sorts of medical information, some girl, likely human, was possibly still in need of their medical expertise.

Maybe she was just greatly allergic? This alone might have made the companion think of this in the first place.

“It's unlikely for a human to develop such an allergy to aspirin normally,” the Doctor tried to make Martha see reason, only partly wishing that she did. “Only in extremely rare cases-”

“I think you are talking too much, Doctor.”

“Who? I? Never!” The Gallifreyan shook his head and, unexpectedly to Martha, did not say another word, his eyes fixed on the TARDIS door.

“Come, TARDIS, I know you can help,” Martha tried shyly. Most often, the clever vessel ignored her requests. It seemed she was willing to comply this time.

“She needs to know at least approximate coordinates,” the Doctor sighed at her. During his long life, he has witnessed many instances where being unable to help has made his companions question their place in the world or sometimes rethink the reasons why they were travelling with the Doctor at all, if the journeys were letting them know of great suffering no less than of amazing adventures.

This time, everything was different. The ship began moving and transporting them to the place where the apparently suffering female was being held.

The Time Lord was imagining many scenarios. A hospital ward sounded like one of the most logical possibilities. Then again, maybe the patient – someone young, Martha had said – refused to be hospitalised. Or maybe she was too weak to do anything... Death was out of the question. The TARDIS would not intentionally take them to see it, if such were the case.

Once the ship has materialised, the Doctor was the first to leave, ready to help the ill woman the best he could.

* * *

“I have been waiting for you,” a familiar voice whispered weakly from an ordinary, completely commonly looking bed, the quiet words startling both Martha and the Doctor. “If you can-”

“Rose,” he creaked. “For a moment, I thought someone from Gallifrey-”

She smiled at him sadly. “Nice to meet you, too, Doctor.”

“But- you're human! Why do you look as if you have just-”

Martha Jones took Rose by the hand. It seemed the girl needed it. “Are you what I was afraid you are?”

“Rose Tyler? Yes, but you don't need to worry. I'll be gone soon. You could have him all for yourself.”

She shook her head, flabbergasted. “Don't say that. I meant... Are you... are you a Time Lady?” Martha's voice was trembling.

“What does it matter now? I have seen the Doctor. My life is now complete,” Rose giggled bitterly.

The Time Lord could not remain silent any longer. “You, Rose Tyler, are going to be the death of me,” he exhaled, teary. “Do you know that, since you were not born a Time Lady, your immune system might deal with it differently?” _Help you get over it?_

“He's right! Do you remember, have you ever taken aspirin before?”

“Who hasn't?” She looked at the two visitors hopefully. “Is this true? Am I going to survive?”

 

“Yes!” The Doctor tried to calm his triggered senses down for a second. There it was, the unexpected sound of two hearts beating.

“I could kiss you,” he winked at her. “I might, later. But first things first – what is this place? Weren't you supposed to be a heiress? The rich daughter of-”

* * *

Martha smiled at the scene in front of her. His girlfriend was going to survive. This alone has returned the Doctor his usual gob. If only he knew the article written by the said girlfriend was what has made her understand the situation in the first place...

“Pete did not approve of my writings. Said I was a shame to his name.”

“What _writings_?”

“Those with encoded meanings. Fiction, nothing else. But Jack understood what I was intending to do. He was playing the farce with me long enough to accidentally evoke the _connection_. I am sorry.”

Martha hurried to explain. “She has published her work in several newspapers. Her being the daughter of one of the most famous people in Great Britain, she was allowed and encouraged to do whatever she pleased. That's some of it, right, Rose?”

The Doctor stared at the two women. “How do you-”

“Nobody took it seriously. But, as humorous literary trash, the short anecdotes written by Pete Tyler's daughter... They have made my life goals much easier to reach.”

“Do you two know each other?” The Time Lord managed at last.

“I haven't seen her in my life until today,” Martha admitted. “Jack, however...”

“Am I correct to presume you mean the Captain?” The Doctor was suddenly strangely hopeful. Maybe Jack Harkness was useful for something, after all.

“Yes. I didn't think his anecdotes of crossing parallel universes were true. Then, he has mentioned Rose.” Martha was keeping an eye on the fair-haired woman, not completely certain their optimism was entirely justified...

 

 


	2. Come Closer

**Previously...**

 

_Martha was keeping an eye on the fair-haired woman, not completely certain their optimism was entirely justified..._

* * *

 

 

**Keys to Happiness**

 

**2\. Come Closer**

 

Rose was looking at the Doctor, who seemed both incredulous and excited.

“Rose. You can't imagine how-”

“I do, too,” she smiled at him.

Martha has cleared her throat. “I think I'd rather try to contact Jack, wherever he might be,” she blushed, uncomfortable. “I think he deserves to know.” She could not help but feel extremely out of place.

The Doctor nodded at her, eager to have Rose for himself. The wish has been incredibly easy to identify for both Rose and Martha, with the former beginning to giggle uncontrollably the second the dark-skinned girl has excused herself and left.

“Do you think Martha is going to succeed?”

“In contacting _Mr Sexy_? You bet,” the Time Lord nodded, grim. “I'm sure she is.” The last thing he needed was having the Captain anywhere close to Rose.

The Time Lady's amusement has only intensified. “Jack's our friend! Team TARDIS, remember?”

“Yeah,” he muttered. “This still doesn't mean I trust him.”

“Why?” Rose eyed him teasingly.

“Because he might choose to spend the majority of his free time with us, now that-”

“Don't be silly,” she giggled. “Don't imagine I intend to pick Jack over you, or whatever it is you keep imagining!”

“I'm no longer certain about anything,” he muttered.

“I am,” Rose eyed him encouragingly. “Sure, I don't feel well and have no idea when the bloody poisoning is going to pass,” her admission felt strained. “But this is hardly the first time I have fallen victim to eating something I shouldn't have!”

“I'm terrified,” the Doctor admitted. “What if the aspirin has already affected you beyond repair?”

Rose shuddered. “You could have kept that bit to yourself, Doctor. Just when I have decided to get up from my bed, you need to come and say this!”

“Sorry,” he shrugged, understanding that has truly been a stupid thing to say. “But are you sure about this?” If the Doctor was being honest to himself, wishing to have Rose back in his arms has never left his mind. Only now, he understood why.

“I want to,” she said. “Have spent enough time in bed as it is,” Rose whined.

The Time Lord smiled at her understandingly. “I'm still not completely certain about this,” he admitted. “If something happened to you, I would blame myself forever!”

She inhaled. “Don't you dare, Doctor. None of this is your fault,” the girl has jumped off the bed, only understanding the sudden move might not have been the best idea thw moment the view in front of her got blurry, even if just for a second.

“Bloody hell,” Rose muttered.

The Doctor wrapped his arms around her, careful not to cause her any more additional discomfort. “You feel well enough to use such expressions, it seems,” he teased.

“It's an ordinary expression,” she rolled her eyes at him, giggling. “If you think I might be in danger still, well-” The girl sighed at the Time Lord meaningfully, expecting for some reassurance.

“Do you think you could show some of your writing to me?” He asked her innocently. “You have surely got me intrigued, Rose!”

She shrugged at him teasingly. “Jack might have kept some cuttings to himself, for future reference.”

“ _What_ future reference?” The Doctor was startled.

“He's Jack. Who knows just how many ways he could find to make use of whatever,” Rose calmed him down.

“Do you mean his-” The alien was not completely certain about how much the girl remembered from Satelite Five, if anything.

“Yes. Hey,” another idea has come to Rose, “does this mean I would get to live for as long as you do? Assuming-”

“If I protect you well enough, yes,” he spoke evenly.

Rose exhaled, suddenly worried. “What do you mean, _if_?”

“If I'm not careful, you might...”

“Perish?”

He gasped. “I can't be sure, with your situation being unlike anything I've ever known, you might even... regenerate one day,” the Doctor has finished quietly.

Rose blinked at him, not having considered the possibility. “I haven't thought about it,” she admitted. “I'd rather not.”

“Okay,” he smiled softly, remembering one thing about the Time Lords... One Rose hasn't acquired, it seemed. “How are you feeling?”

“I feel my mind's about to explode with all this uninvited information!” Rose turned her eyes away from him. “Am I supposed to suddenly recall every single thing?! It seems like it has thought it best for me to-”

The Doctor pulled her even closer to himself. “That's impossible to avoid, I'm afraid, love,” he finished timidly. “Not until you learn how to organise your mind.”

Rose gaped at him. “Organise? As in 'to remember', 'to forget', 'to ignore'?”

“However you'd like,” he said. “By people? By times? Everyone has different ways.”

“Obviously, your way of sorting memories is something interesting? Unusual?”

The Time Lord grinned at her, but the emotion did not reach his eyes. “Oh, you know me.” He hoped she wouldn't get so far into his mind, not so soon. He was not ready to let her know of just how huge a part the section labelled 'Rose' has taken up inside his mind... Someday, one day, yes...

She sighed, giving him an equally emotionless smile. “How am I even going to do this all by myself?”

“I... er... I could help you, but I don't want to make you feel as if I was intruding...”

Rose stared at him. “This surely sounds scary. Are you sure you wouldn't be able to... er... forget some uncomfortable things, in case you come up on them?” The girl was blushing furiously. This whole idea has been an insanity.

“I hate this just as much as you do, Rose! But I'm sure you have already sorted some memories inside your mind subconsciously! I'd only look at the way you have chosen to sort them and will be out of your mind the following moment, knowing what the way you have inside your mind is. Just a couple of seconds, no more, I promise!”

The girl gaped at him. “Just a couple of moments.”

“I swear!” The Doctor hated having to do that. Rose Tyler has always been the one person whose privacy was above all for him.

At the same time, he couldn't fight away the urgent wish to feel something, _anything_ from her apparently still fresh new nature...

“Could we please do this now?” Rose said quietly, both terrified and full of expextations.

The Doctor shrugged. “I need to be sure you are perfectly all right,” he warned. “I'd rather wait for a while longer, Rose. Is this okay?”

“Yep,” she agreed, uncertain if they needed to be standing so close together now that some of the things appeared to be settled between them... Even if the greater part wasn't.

The Time Lord understood the girl was no longer feeling comfortable in his embrace all of a sudden. “Rose? I can move away, if you feel uncomfortable!” He hurried to assure her, secretly hoping she wouldn't let him go.

“Tough,” she teased. “But if this is the only way for you to stay as close to me as you are now, I'd rather you stayed.”

_Oh!_ The Doctor's face has lightened up. He grinned at her. Rose was so close and he was still behaving like an idiot, still fixed upon some things he should have known were impossible to expect in this unimaginable situation.

However, he could not help himself. “If only we could communicate telepathically...” The Doctor's words were but breathed out.

Rose exhaled, suddenly frustrated. “I have been standing here waiting for a kiss, yet he can only think about some bloody-”

The Time Lord was unpleasantly surprised. “I don't know about you, but telepathy is something essential for some of us,” he grumbled.

She sighed. “I know next to nothing about telepathy, sorry,” Rose admitted. “But I'm still waiting for that kiss.”

The Doctor gulped with resignation. “All right.” 

 


	3. Deals

**Previously...**

_She sighed. “I know next to nothing about telepathy, sorry,” Rose admitted. “But I'm still waiting for that kiss.”_

_The Doctor gulped with resignation. “All right.”_

* * *

 

 

**Keys to Happiness**

**3\. Deals**

 

Rose did not expect for the kind of kiss that followed immediately  - urgent, wild and filled with sensations she wasn’t ready to identify.

 _May I?_ The Doctor was determined to get some kind of reaction from her, even if Rose has more or less implied her opinion about telepathic communication.

The girl beamed at him and allowed the Doctor to deepen the kiss without a single doubt in her mind.

Had she heard his timid telepathic request? Absolutely. But Rose has always remembered was a Tyler and making things easy for the Doctor was not going to happen.

Rose has been the one breaking off the snog. “Martha could come up on us any moment now. We must stop.”

The Doctor was stunned. “Since when do you care what other people think? Besides, Martha knows just how important you are to me, Rose!”

“Which still doesn’t make sure she isn’t going to get wrong impressions about me. Not only am I badly undereducated, compared to her, but you want her to see me as some… Slutty individual?”

The Doctor backed away, startled. “Rassilon, Rose. You know I could never-” Wherever has she got these thoughts from?

“In fact, if it makes you uncomfortable being seen by people you don’t trust, we always can choose to only share kisses in private, yeah?”

Rose inhaled, all of a sudden hit with a realisation about just how much he was willing to do for her, if only to make her happy.

She blushed, ashamed and angry at herself. “Don’t be daft, Doctor. In fact, I intend to keep snogging you senseless from the moment Jack arrives,” Rose assured him.

“Is he going to?” The Time Lord was puzzled.

“That depends on Martha’s abilities to convince him,” Rose shrugged at the Doctor knowingly.

Neither Rose nor the Doctor doubted for a second the Captain was going to come.

“I’m much more worried about Jack deciding to stay,” the Doctor admitted.

The young Time Lady eyed him knowingly. “Calm down, Doctor. I’m sure he’d find ways to enterntain himself, at least for until he understands Martha isn’t interested,” she assured him.

The alien’s eyes lit up with an amusing thought. “That is to say, _if_ she won’t be interested. Jack’s a real charmer, after all,” the Doctor winked at her.

“A con man and a medical student?”

“That would be quite a sight, indeed,” the Time Lord grinned at her. “But we really shouldn’t  speculate,” he remembered himself.

Martha came up to them the next minute. “Jack Harkness has agreed to come. He sounded pretty excited, as well!”

Rose grinned. “When?”

The dark-skinned companion shrugged. “I don’t know him, yeah?”

“We do,” the Doctor spoke darkly.

“Is there anything I should know?” Martha was honestly curious.

“You’ll see,” Rose said.

“You sound like I should be worried.”

“No, on the contrary,” the Doctor assured her.

“Okay! By the way, shouldn’t you be in bed?”

Rose shook her head slightly at the worried companion. “No. My nausea and sickness are gone and this guy here has decided to remind me just how much I have been missing when we were apart, yeah?”

Martha rolled her eyes. “Spare me the details,” she shrugged, not really wanting to know more. “If your situation worsens, I’ll know who the guilty party is,” she eyed the Time Lord warningly.

He nodded.

“Rosie! Doc!” The atmosphere has changed immediately the moment Jack Harkness has entered the ship, his entrance met with a grin from Rose and a grim nod from the Doctor.

“How has the TARDIS allowed you in? She hasn’t given a sign, or anything for us. We could have prepared something-” The Doctor shook his head, incredulous.

“The only thing I need is right here in front of me,” Jack assured them. “My two favourite time travellers,” he sent them one of his dirty seductive grins. “Although, if I’m being honest, I did not expect to find you all here. I can think of several more things I might have imagined you two doing.”

“Just stop it,” Rose rolled her eyes at Jack good-naturedly. “We do what we want when we want it. But you have come, and we wouldn’t want for Martha to think we don’t know how to welcome our visitors,” she has finished rather sharply.

“I’m sure Martha can see just how much you two are in need of a proper shag,” he smirked at the dark-skinned woman.

“Anyway,” the Doctor tried to change the topic. “Do you, by any chance, have any of those mysterious _writings_ with you? I am intrigued,” he smiled at the Captain dryly.

Rose sent Jack a panicked look. The last thing she needed was the Doctor looking at those which, in the eye of a casual beholder, were nothing but strings of text. However, for the one they were meant for, the texts would look nothing short of coded love confessions. The Time Lady shook her head at Jack, but he has only shrugged at her. “I thought you were writing those for him? Not that my plain _human_ self can read anything out of  those, mind!”

Rose gulped, hoping Jack hasn’t thought of bringing it with him.

“Luckily for you, Doctor, I have some of these brought just for you,” the immortal human looked at his fair-haired friend apologetically.

The girl looked at the Time Lord pleadingly, pulling him into a snog and dismissing her plan to tease him any further. _If you get rid of these, I swear, I will employ telepathy whenever. Just-_

The alien accepted her rules, tossing the papers kindly handed to him by Jack far away without throwing a glance at them.

“For God’s sake, you two,” Jack Harkness rolled his eyes, secretly pleased. “I am not here to try to seduce either of you. No matter how unbelievably sexy you two are,” he sent them a smug smirk. “Just don’t forget to move this to your bedroom, afterwards,” Jack reminded.

“I see what you mean,” Martha muttered, meaning both the Doctor’s words about Jack Harkness and the self-explicatory sight in front of her.


End file.
